Mommy Brigade

Thursday, July 23, 2015

24 Weeks and So tired

This pregnancy has been so different. So so different. It's made me realize how "easy" my other two pregnancies have been. This one just seems to keep throwing new stuff at me.
I have always been a girl that NEEDS sleep. Like a lot of sleep. I've never been someone who can sleep a solid 5 hours and wake up totally refreshed the next day. I seriously think I need double that. hahah. Ok not double, but at least a good 8 hours. Having kids changes your sleeping habits and I literally thought I was going to die when I had Damon and he didn't sleep for longer than 2 hours at a time for almost the whole first year. I remember praying every night, to "just let this baby sleep for 4 hours and I would be so happy! Please I need sleep! I'm going to lose my mind! " and once he was sleep trained, what did I do? Have another baby. Luckily, Rafe was a decent sleeper and before long they both slept through the night and were decent nappers an life was ok. And of course as a mother, you just adjust and get through it.
Damon stopped napping around 3 and Rafe stopped napping around 2 because Damon never napped and he would freak out if he was the only one who had to sleep. So they both go to bed around 8 and wake up around 8:30 which works great for us. We have had that schedule for over a year and half and I'm pretty used to it. The idea of going back to a newborn who is going to wake me up every few hours is freaking me out a little. I was just in the zone when I had Damon and Rafe so close together. I was used to it. Now I'm used to kids who sleep all through the night for a solid 12 hours. It's going to be interesting adjusting to a newborn for me.
The only thing that MIGHT save me is my sleep now sucks. For the last month maybe 2 months my sleep has just been so crappy. When we were living with my parents, we slept in seperate beds because I could sleep better. And I would pop a unisom and be out. Well I stopped taking those because then I was so groggy all morning and felt like I could sleep all day.
Then we moved and I was so excited to get my mattress back and get some good sleep without the unisom. Turns out our house doesn't have A/C so our room was a nice 75-80 degrees at night. If you know Dan and I we like it cold. Like year round 68 degrees in our house. So my sleep continued to suck. Then our lives were saved when Betty and Jerry gave us a floor A/C unit for our room. We have been in heaven ever since then and sleeping in a nice cool 68 degree room every night.
The last few weeks I have been fighting sleeping on my back. I am most comfortable on my stomach but my belly has gotten too big to really do that. I can sleep at an angle an mostly on my side but then I wake up and my shoulders ache and I'm never really comfortable on my side. When I sleep on my back I'm restless. All night. I don't know why! It's obviously the best position for being pregnant. But I just toss and turn all night. Get up and pee. Get up and get a drink. I Just can't get some solid sleep.
So this morning I woke up just feeling like I got hit by a truck. I feel like my body just wants to shut down and sleep for like 3 days straight. I am so tired! But I'm only 24 weeks! I didn't get this feeling with either of my other boys until I was probably 34 weeks. So I'm stressing. This is going to be the longest pregnancy if my sleep is already out the window. I think just moving and being on my feet and unpacking and organizing is slowly wearing me down and then adding crappy sleep to the mix and I just am exhausted. And I always feel like such a BABY when I'm telling Dan how tired I am because he wakes up before me and goes to work all day at a job that's pretty stressful and I know he's tired too. I just have no energy today and am feeling a little panicked about going through the rest of this pregnancy with such low energy then having a newborn and two little men to keep up with all day. I'm just going to be a zombie. And I don't want to be.
So! I need some help. What helps you sleep when you're pregnant? Unisom was a lifesaver for me in the first trimester but it ends up making me feel tired all morning. I'm active during the day and am on my feet a lot keeping after the boys and the house and stuff. Any special drinks or pillows or lotions or music or something I could be using to help me? I just keep waiting for the point in pregnancy where you get a second wind and start nesting and you feel cute and pregnant and have energy. That normally hits about 10 weeks ago and so the fact that I haven't felt that yet is freaking me out.